Photo by: Reuters
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Representative unions in the gold mining industry – the Associations of Mineworkers and Construction Union, the National Union of Mineworkers, Solidarity and UASA – are expected to revert back to the Chamber of Mines (CoM) in the next week, on whether their members accept gold producers’ final offers for wage and benefits increases.
At a media briefing on Friday, CoM lead negotiator Dr Elize Strydom said the unions were in the process of presenting the offers to their respective members and was arranging mass meetings.
“AMCU will revert to us by Tuesday, while the others will revert on Friday,” she noted.
The final offer would ensure that the gold producers increase the pay of entry-level employees to between R12 800 and R13 200 a month by the last year of the three-year agreement. The total wage increases were expected to amount to R5-billion.
Harmony Gold CEO Graham Briggs on Friday pointed out that the feedback would be given to each gold miner independently. “If we don’t get positive feedback from the unions, then we have to negotiate [again], but this is the final offer. There is not [a lot] to talk about,” he noted.
Strydom said that, should the unions not accept the final offer, the offer could revert to the firm offer price, which was made when gold traded at $1 200/oz. It has since dropped by $100/oz, on which the final offers were based.
Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman commented that the first offer the employers had put on the table was already generous. “The gold miners made a better offer in a worse market; if anything, we should have gone backwards,” he said.
AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan added that the wage increases would add about R400-million to the mining company’s wage bill.